My Weblog

A Zen Moment before Market

Sometimes when the FedEX man comes to the door,  a nearly religious experience occurs. No...it's not that I have a crush on the delivery guy (I've never even seen him).  Again...it's all about the fabric baby...and when you open a package as amazingly beautiful as this one I received from my friend Joel, how can you do anything but stand back in meditative awe.

Mr. Dewberry's new line of fabric is as stunning as the last ones  and I was honored to create the FAV Zen Robe with this fantastic Ginseng sample yardage that Mr. FedEX brought to me.  This Zen beauty will be on display  at Joel's booth at Market in Portland this weekend.  She's nicely folded, wrapped in tissue and waiting to be put into the suitcase.  She and I are flying out tomorrow.  I'm so giddy with excitement I can barely stand it.  Not only do I get to meet up with some fantastically cool fabric and clothing designers while in Oregon (my homestate by the way-I was born, raised, and married in that beautiful land of evergreens and endless water), but I also get to spend time with my dearest friend who's joining me for some girl time,  and  also get to see my mom to boot.  What could be better?! If you're coming to Portland, make sure to drop by Joel's booth
and try the Zen robe on.
My beautiful friend Tracy who modeled for me says it's super cozy comfy!

If you leave  me a comment you'll be entered to win a little surprise made by me in some of these amazing fabrics. I'm off to Portland--I promise to come home and spill the beans with pictures galore.   I hope these pictures bring a little zen to your  day; they did to mine.

Going, going...gone to #113

Auctions seem to be a mainstay in my life right now. Not only do I have my entire "Summer Vogue" collection up for auction on e-bay, but I recently spent the morning at a real estate and personals auction here in town. I love the excitement of the bidding process: spying great items, positioning myself (in this case, #113)  whereas to be within sight of the auctioneer but not in full view of my competing bidders, the musical sound of the auctioneer's song taunting onlookers to "go higher," and just the overall fun of the whole experience. When an auction sign showed up in my neighborhood a few weeks ago, I marked it on my calendar in big red letters. Life's just crazy and busy enough, if I don't put it on the calendar--it may not happen. RED means I'm not missing it for the world (my upcoming trip to Portland is totally in RED by the way...but oh how I wax tangential). Anyway, my real estate agent even dropped by my house a few days before the auction  to make sure I was planning to come--she said she'd been through the house and knew that there would be plenty of the vintage goodies that are right up my alley. Boy was she right.

Look at some of my winnings--this amazing silver pitcher, butter dish and tea set, a vintage aqua jewelry case (lined in pink no less) and the most darling petty cash compact were my favorite of the day's booty.

I find myself mesmerized by the age group of auction hounds--they ranged from 18-80  that day. I love communal experiences like this--the ones when the love of something from the past and the drive to find a good bargain build a conversational bridge between young and old. An older gentleman raises this sweet painting high above his head for all the crowd to see and
the bidding begins...

Look how cute this petty cash compact case is. I've been treasure hunting for years in countless antique stores, flea markets, and auctions and this is the first compact like this I've ever seen. I just love it. As I'm writing this I realize I should have taken a picture of the inside--it's so darling. Maybe I'll fill it up with some change and post a picture in a future post. I have to say...this compact got me thinking about petty cash--ohhhhhhhhhhh how times have changed since this little accessory was made. Petty cash used to be made of metal and jingle in your pocket.

These days it all folds. I try to keep some $5's, $10's, and $20's stored around in various places like my desk and the glove box just in case--
I suppose nickels, dimes and quarters just don't cut it anymore, do they!?

Ps. You can find these pieces of my "Summer Vogue" collection by clicking on the picture below.

By the bolt please...by the bolt

When you're an artistic person, you just can't help but fall head over heels in love sometimes with things like colors, shapes, silhouettes, and in my case today...a FABRIC... that has it all! Sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...I can't quite explain how deeply in love I am with this incredible print by Tina Givens. I have often sat in bed at night wishing for a fabric in this exact color scheme. I didn't even bother to take the dream as far as being picky about the shapes or graphic designs on it; I just wanted these colors. I'm happy to say, I got it all when this fabric arrived in the mailbox and I could not wait to design a creation for LimeVine's latest launch:

Vintage Aqua and tomato pinkish red?!! Talk about yesteryear yet so now yummy! This vibrant color scheme "euro- inspired" me to create this new shirred bubble tank design. You can check out the appliqué jeans and peasant blouse here. Thanks for taking a look-see and thank you Miss Tina for being so artistically on my wishful wavelength. I think I need to buy more of this lovely fabric by the bolt baby! Cross your fingers for me that I'll get to meet this wonderful textile designer when I go to Market in Portland  in a few weeks.

And, just to keep you smiling, I thought I'd share a little of what I do to keep Chloe engaged during our long photos shoots (I'm not gonna lie-she was a wee bit cold during this one). Whenever I see her starting to fade (or freeze) on me, I ask her to give me to the goofiest, angriest and/or saddest face she can muster. Here's goofy from yesterday...enjoy sweet readers!

A Manatee's Metaphor

Don't you just love a beautiful Spring day trip to the zoo? I don't know how I got so lucky when I chaperoned Chloe's field trip to the CincyZoo today,  but the weather was perfect (not too hot...not too cold... no rain!) and the kids in my group were all well-behaved. You parents know that the stars don't always line up so well for days like zoo-day. Many times, if it's not blazing saddles hot and all of the animals are hiding in the shade, then it's raining cats and dogs ( and...who needs to go to the zoo to see those domesticates?) OR a kid or two (or three) are so cranky or hyper, it hardly seems worth paying to GO to the zoo when you brought the zoo TO the zoo with you. (did you get all that?!)

By far, our favorite animals we saw today were the manatees.

This beautiful sea cow gracefully moved through the water and even paused to strike this perfect underbelly pose for me. I think she liked my camera. I must say I'm pretty proud of this shot. I needed to capture a moment of carefree grace with the lens today. Life's been hectic and to some degree a little sad the past few days.
My new manatee friend took me on a metaphorical swim with her today and it was just the weightless feeling I was needing.
Thank you for your graciousness, kind animal.

Chloe and I also stopped to pose with the elephants. She especially loved the baby one and was amazed that a baby of any kind could be so BIG!

If you have a local zoo, I highly recommend taking a Spring visit before the weather gets too hot and the kids (or moms) get too cranky. And...thanks for letting me wax metaphoric with you. I'm feeling pretty introspective these days.

Popcorn Popping and Dr. Oz

I especially love driving into my neighborhood during this time of year. Both sides of the main road are lined with Bradford Pear hybrids and all I can do is sing...
"I looked out the window and what did I see?
Popcorn popping on the apricot tree."

I'm not gonna lie, the blossoms are kinda stinky,
but they are so beautiful to look at
and they mean one thing is certain:
SPRING HAS ARRIVED!
She was a little late in showing up this year
but now that she's here, I'll take
her with arms wide open.

Does spring just seem to bring with it the
desire to get into better physical condition...or what?!
I feel my body saying things like
"please lose a few pounds of winter insulation"
"could you drink more water while you're at it?"
and "hey...get some sun!"
Not sure if it was just a coincidence or if my body
is just determined to win this battle quickly, but
Dr.Oz  came here to Cinti this week and I was lucky enough
to get a ticket (THANKS TRACY--I love you hon!)
to hear him highlight some of
the information covered in his newest book.

Every time I see Dr.Oz on the Oprah show, I feel inspired to take better care of myself. There's something about his honest (and very detailed I must add) way of telling us like it is, that makes me want to eat more healthy.
Now, thanks to a conversation I had with
"the great and powerful Oz" during the seminar, I'm determined to DRINK a lot more healthy as well. I just had to open my big mouth and ask him how bad the DIET soda is that I've been drinking (you know you've been drinking it too, dear reader)  Intellectually, I already knew what his response would be--you know--something along the lines of..."those artificial sweeteners are chemically foreign to the body and therefore NOT GOOD for you at all!" Well, after everything (and believe me there was a lot) Dr.Oz had to say about how bad it is drink too many diet soft drinks, I now have a visceral-level determination to "kick the habit." He felt so strongly about it, he even said he thinks he should answer the question on an upcoming Oprah show. I'm happy to say that since Wednesday when I saw Dr. Oz, I haven't had any diet soda at all and only a few sips of the sugar-filled kind. I've drank about 10 times as much water as I typically have been and it feels really good!

A book signing following the seminar left me with some pictures, a few good laughs with my friends, an invite to come to the Oprah show,
and a signed copy of the new book.

With the Spring sun shining in full force yesterday, I decided to plant a flat of
morning glories in the flower beds out front. I then took my new book to the
front lawn to do a little reading while soaking up a few rays.

All of this and no DIET COKE...
now that's what I call determination.

Office Parties and Girls' Nights Out~WOOHOO!

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...well what can I say? There are no words to do this justice...just sweet,
fun in your guts laughter--the kind that makes the world a pretty darn fun place to be:

I am so excited for tonight's return of The Office I can barely stand it. I know I'm not the only one.
What major faux pas will Michael pull?
What practical jokes will Pim (that's Hollywooooooood for Pam & Jim)be up to? Will Dwight kill any small animals and proudly say it was in defense of his great nation?
Will Andy sing a falsetto tune in IGPAY ATINLAY?

Ohhhhhh....as much as it pains me to do so, I'm opting for a little GNO with my homegirls when it's airing and then coming home to watch the new episode on DVR. Although I do love watching The Office with the kids, I really need an uninterrupted viewing for this one.

So, what does being at the office bring to your life? I'm really spoiled I have to admit. Here are some of the most fun things I got to do while "at the office" last year:

Traveling to Utah to the Boutique Cafe' Getaway weekend. I got to meet up with several designer friends; we had a fantastic time. Here's me with my LimeVine colleague Patty of Modkid and Amelia of Intimate Photography.

The year also brought the exciting opportunity to meet Mark Badgley and James Mischka. I was even lucky enough to be asked last minute to be a lead dresser and backstage asst manager for a runway show they did here in Cinti.

Their Fall '08 collection was stunning on the runway. What a blast looking at the collection and discussing it with the Mr.Badgley himself. This was a teeny taste of the kind of OFFICE I'm hoping to spend much of my career in.

Well, I'm off to my GNO. Look at my sweet friends--we get together every week. We have some good times that's for sure. I have to tease them sometimes for being such creatures of habit and insisting to meet at the same place, same table every week.

Being that I'm the creative type, I have to change things up a bit, goose people, rearrange the furniture, you know what I mean?! Anyway, I went out on a limb and broke the mold a few weeks ago. I texted them all, telling them GNO was changed for that night;I was cooking Italian and they'd better come hungry.  We had meatball lasagna with homemade marinara and a huge caeser salad. Everyone was blissfully fine with the change of plans btw.

Oh how I digress....

Anyhoo... are there any other OFFICE PARTIES planned for tonight? Pray tell-- because I'm dying to know who else is obsessed. Bradford's favorite Christmas gift was his Dwight bobblehead after all :)

Cutting Back on the PCHT

Long hair for boys has certainly
come back in a literally BIG way
(some of the faux~fros I've seen are HUGE!)
Comic relief when driving through the neighborhood-yes!
Attractive one bit-not so much!
Call me old-fashioned but when it comes to boys' hair,
I subscribe to the less is more way of thinking.

So, come on....tell me the truth....if you happen to be the mother of a tween or teenage boy right now, does he sometimes look like he has a nervous twitch  because he's acquired a habit of doing what I'm now calling the

PRINCE CHARMING HEADTOSS???

You know the routine...his hands go into his pockets (an attempt to make it look effortless as in LOOK MOM...NO HANDS!) then, the head slightly tilts down and to the side (to lift the bangs just a bit away from the forehead of course) and then with a quick "swooping like snap" his head goes up and over toward his shoulder. His charming locks are now just where he wants them and he's feeling great that his hair is actually long enough to "toss!" Finally, the hands come out of the pockets and he's strolling all cool again
like he cares nothing of his hair at all.

I love it when I get lines from my 13 yr old Sean like...."What...I'm not into my hair....I don't even use a brush Mom!" HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! There's no fooling this momma---he gave himself away big time when I finally insisted it was time for a haircut. He wasn't one bit happy! I do have to give him props though for choosing to agree to keep himself clean cut enough for our family's standards. He was ticked when I was cutting it but when an after-glance in the mirror still revealed a charming prince he said,
(think Michael Scott while reading this)
"It's all gooooooood"

PHEWWWWWWWWWWW--no harm no foul!

So, what do you think? Grandpa and Grandma are happy I can tell you that much...and the nervous twitching is not as often or obvious anymore. Hair does grow though, so I'll be watching for the PCHT (that's text talk
btw-lol) to appear more frequently and then Sean will have another date with my scissors-what a handsome prince! Any PCHT stories you can share? I'd love to hear them.

Ps. I've been tagged by Annette and Michelle to list 7 things you may not know about me-I'll get on that soon I promise! For now, Annette, you cannot imagine how many times my kids have asked me to link to your blog so they could listen to the Maroon 5 song that's on the top of your playlist. I finally bought it from iTunes because of you :) Thanks hon!

 

Webkinz, anyone?

If your kids are anything like my kiddos and their friends, then even after a year and a half, the Webkinz obsession is still alive and kicking in your neck of the woods. Chloe's friend Abigail celebrated her birthday today--and like any 5 year old she wanted 2 things:the tiger snake Webkinz---OHHHHHHHHH----and a

Webkinz birthday cake.

Tall orders indeed!

Being that the tiger snake was already sold out here in Cinti, Abby's mom Tricia hoped to get the cake wish fulfilled and called me to ask for suggestions. A strawberry bundt cake, whipped icing, and a package of Wilton's fondant later, here's what I came up with:

This sweet little pooch is popping out of a fondant gift bag--no worries no icing was touching her pretty coat of white fur :) You should have seen Abby's face when she saw her cake--one of those priceless faces.  Chloe had a blast at the party--her favorite part were the blinged out animal collars made from sparkly pipes cleaners--what a great inexpensive party favor. All of Chloe's Webkinz are iced about the neck in bling and nestled in bed with her tonight. What a fun party. Thanks Abby for inviting us and letting me help make your cake.

Anyone else's kids still loving these furry little tech savvy friends? How many rooms in the mansion? I stopped counting. I do know Bradford purchased a lifetime supply of french fries for his panda bear though--good thing they have no calories. Now you know why my blogging's been sparse--the kids have taken over my computer building up their Webkinz worlds.

Ohhhhhh...and before I forget....better late than never here... the winner of my cupcake bling tee drawing is Megan-woohooo! E-mail me to claim your prize.

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnd...speaking of cupcakes and having wishes granted, look what's on my Spring '08 wishlist: I want one of these so bad--are they the cutest or what?

Anything on your wishlists? Chloe wants a tiger snake and another pony to add to her collection.

~~~miX-uP mOnDaY~~~read some SEuss while...

ReaD Some SeuSS whiLe...drinking juice!
Wear a HaT that's tAll or FaT,
puT on YouR pants WHile doinG a Dance
tHen SpoRT a wide SmilE and sTaY for AwHilE!

The kids celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday at school today. Wearing silly hats, crazy hair, and "clothing all askew" were all required elements for commemorating the master of catchy rhymes and outlandishly fun characters.
If you know my Bradford, then you know that slicking his hair like Alfalfa's and posing for these Whoville-like pictures were just part of everyday antics for him. My little comedian is always ready for the spotlight as long as it involves lots of giggling (and unfortunately, passing gas is A-okay with him as well...BOYS... what can I say?!) Chloe went for her own fashionable twist on a crazy headcover--3 hats and 2 big boutique bows in some Super Seussy colors.

The kids had a ball at school today--thanks Dr. Seuss for making the world of reading more colorfully fun for the kiddos!

...making your heart LEAP!

You know those special moments in life that just make your heart LEAP?
Well...we just had one such moment in our family and appropriately enough our hearts were leaping on
LEAP DAY!
Chloe's school hosted a daddy-daughter dance this weekend and she was so happy to exchange flowers with her daddy and have him escort her to what she kept calling her first "prom." Sean and Bradford helped me make a special daddy-daughter dinner for the evening;the boys even put on their suit jackets to play waiter and maitre d. Chloe tried her first steamed asparagus spears tossed is lemon garlic aioli but she preferred the plain steamed broccoli. We played some classic Frank and Dean on the cd player and enjoyed a really nice meal before the dance. Chloe said it was one of the most fun times she's ever had... I say having a great dad like Rob (he's decided a no on my pseudonym Maxwell, by the way)is one of the best gifts a little girl can have.

PITTER PATTER PITTER PATTER....LEAP!

Any daddy-daughter dance or date memories you can share? I'd love to hear about them.

And, what do you think about the facelift on my blog? Many thanks to my sweet friend
Shabby Miss Jenn
for having the most beautiful embellies to buy for making things vintage-pretty. Oh...and I will announce the winner of my cupcake goodie in my next post.